We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  Without warning, the soldier screamed out in pain as the damaged soldier pulled his head back. Blood sprayed out in all directions covering both soldiers. Even with his military uniform on you could make out the torn flesh on the soldier’s arm.

  I’m not sure what happened next, but it looked like the soldier had regained his focus and pulled his arm free. He fired his gun at the damaged soldier once again. He must have pumped another twenty bullets into him with the same results.

  He stood there in shock as blood dripped from his damaged arm. The damaged soldier apparently wasn’t done yet as he took another step toward him. The soldier raised his gun once more, this time visibly shaking. Before he could fire, a single shot rung through the televisions.

  The damaged soldier’s head jerked backwards seconds before his body collapsed to the ground. The camera zoomed in just as blood started running out a small hole located on the center part of his forehead. It looked like a single shot to the head.

  The hurt soldier started looking around for his savior but didn’t see a specific person. The fighting was still going on all around him. He looked toward the soldier that had been standing to his left to see if it had been him, but he quickly realized that it hadn’t been him. He was lying on the ground with a couple of people, a man and woman from the unarmed army ripping apart his stomach. His glazed eyes were focused on something above him.

  It was a very graphic scene and appeared too much for the hurt soldier to witness or maybe it was because the soldier next to him was a friend of his. Regardless, the hurt soldier raised his gun and started shooting at the two people. Only this time it looked like he aimed for their heads.

  Blood sprayed all over the ground as the bullets penetrated their heads. The woman was the closest and had her back to the hurt soldier so that the bullets went into the back of the head and out through the front. The guy was sitting in front of the woman. The bullets that exited her forehead went straight into his forehead and out the back of his head.

  The hurt soldier continued to shoot at them until he ran out of bullets. Her body fell forward while the guy’s body fell backwards. I guess the impact from the barrage of bullets caused them to fall that way. When her body stopped moving, you could see the extent of the damage the girl and guy had done to the soldier’s stomach area.

  The hurt soldier slowly limped toward his downed comrade. He stopped a few feet from the downed soldier. With his machine gun out of ammo, he slowly pulled his side arm out of its holster and aimed it at the downed soldier’s head. We watched in awe as he pulled the trigger and fired a single shot into his buddy’s forehead.

  I’m not sure what happened next, but a girl (at least it looked like a young girl) with bloody blondish long hair had her mouth around the soldier’s left calf muscle. You could see his shocked expression as he screamed out in pain. He looked down at the girl and yanked his leg free.

  He must have used a great deal of force to pull his leg free because he lost his balance and fell backwards. The girl wasted no time as she crawled on top of him. You could see the soldier struggling in his attempt to fight her off him.

  He eventually succeeded by pushing her off to the side. He tried to take advantage of the time he bought by rolling in the opposite direction. The only issue was that he rolled directly into another body. His eyes widened as he froze in place. It looked like one of the unarmed people that they had just put down.

  After a few seconds of nothing happening, he must have thought that he was safe and tried to get up. It looked like he was trying to use the body next to him as leverage as he struggled to stand. You could see the blood pouring out of the wound on his arm and leg.

  He pushed down on the motionless head of an unarmed dead girl. He started to lift his right knee when his left hand slipped towards her mouth. She must have not been dead because she bit down on his hand, severing several fingers.

  He screamed once again and pulled his hand back. He fell backwards as he instinctively pulled his injured hand towards his chest. His eyes had the look of shock in them as he inspected his hand. To all of us watching, we were surprised to see that he was missing a few fingers. Well, the tips of those fingers anyway.

  He just sat there, oblivious to what was happening around him. He appeared to be going into shock. He looked over in time to see that the girl he thought was dead turn her head towards him. The tips of his fingers were still sticking out of her mouth.

  While still chewing on his fingers, she started to slowly turn her body to lay on her stomach. It looked like the lower half of her body was pinned underneath a pile of bodies. I’m not sure how she managed to roll over, but once she was on her stomach, she immediately started to crawl towards the soldier. We watched in both, horror and awe.

  The shock of what we were seeing echoed throughout the cafeteria. How could she still be moving? How could she still be alive? I now knew why it was easy for the girl to turn over on to her stomach. Both of her legs were missing just below the knees. The soldier must have dropped his pistol because he had a hold of his machine gun. He lifted the gun with his shaking hands and pulled the trigger. Nothing!

  With his bloody hand missing a few fingertips, he did his best to eject the empty magazine out of his gun and discard it. He reached in a side pocket but pulled his hand out empty. I guess he was out ammo.

  Quickly looking around, he spotted his fellow soldier a few feet away and immediately began to crawl vigorously towards the body. He left a blood trail in his wake. His skin color had turned a ghostly pale from the loss of blood.

  Once he made it to the body, he didn’t hesitate to search it for a magazine. Once he found one, he quickly inserted it into the gun and rolled on to his back. He turned just in time to see both, the blonde and brunette reach his feet. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

  He caught the brunette directly in the face. I’m not sure how many bullets he used, but it was effective. At that close of a range, the bullets began to cave in her face. She immediately dropped to her stomach.

  He then shifted his gun toward the blonde, who was now walking towards him. He squeezed the trigger. The bullets sprayed in a right upward motion. The first bullet hit her right hand and continued until it hit her left shoulder. The bullets did little to slow her down.

  Once she was standing over him, she tried to pounce like a predator jumping on its prey. She started to drop with her hands outstretched, fingers like talons. She didn’t make it.

  The soldier got his gun under control and shot her directly in the face. Her head snapped back as she dropped on top of him. You could see the bullet exit holes as they traveled through the back of her head.

  Unfortunately, the helicopter happened to have been directly above where the soldier was shooting and seemed to have been hit. The camera went blank. The news anchors quickly replaced the camera footage and stated that they were having technical difficulties. They wanted us to know that they would return to the action as soon as they could. They wanted to reassure the American people that the military had everything under control.

  The news couldn’t fool us though. The Council knew exactly what was truly going on. We had looked past the news reports and noticed that people were attacking other people or what looked like people. I’m not talking about the protesters we had witnessed earlier in the news cast either. It looked as if people were attacking other living people with guns and knives. It seemed like all those people in the conflict had lost all common sense.

  I was brought back to reality when the manager spoke, “I want you to know that everything is going to be alright and that we’re only sending you home as a precautionary measure.”

  Disbelief was visible on everyone’s face. In fact, I don’t even remember hearing anyone speak. It was so quiet in the room that you could truly hear a pin drop.

  Like everyone else in the room, none of the Council members said a word. That didn’t mean that we weren’t able to communicate with each other though. All it took was
eye contact and a slight head knob. It was our silent acknowledgment so that the management and other co-workers wouldn’t know that we were coming back to the Warehouse. I made sure that I grabbed the shipping door key on my way out the door.

  As you can imagine, it was hell getting out of the employee parking lot. Four hundred plus vehicles trying to leave at the same time, it was pure chaos. It must have taken twenty minutes just to get out of the parking lot. That doesn’t even include the traffic that led all the way to the highway. I guess everyone was trying to get home.

  Once I was on the highway, I took the opportunity to call my wife. I told her, “I told her to get the kids and our emergency kit ready.”

  She didn’t respond. It was as if she didn’t hear me.

  With a hint of fear, she quietly spoke, “Someone’s trying to break in the house!”

  I told her, “Call the police!”

  She told me, “I tried, but all I got was a busy signal.”

  I silently cursed under my breath as I told her, “Okay. Keep calm and try to keep the kids as quiet as you can. Hurry up and gather our things. I’m only a few miles away.”

  As soon as we were off the phone, I called my sister, “There’s no time to talk. Hurry home and get your kids and your emergency kit. Stick with the plan and meet me at my work.”

  She told me, “Hey. I figured things were going going south, so I called our cousin Lori. I told her to get her family gathered and meet us at the Warehouse.”

  By the time I got off the phone with my sister and turned into my neighborhood, I barely recognized it. It literally looked like a war zone had been placed there. I watched dumbfounded as neighbor chased neighbor around. I want to point out that it wasn’t in a fun children game type of way either.

  It was a chaotic scene as people ran past my car screaming for help. I tried to drive up the street but noticed that more than a few cars were in my way. Most of them were flipped over and smoking. However, a few cars were just sitting in the middle of the road abandoned with their doors wide open. Some of the car’s windows looked like they had bloody hand prints all over them. No one was around. It was like the scene from a horror movie.

  I slowly and carefully made my way up the two blocks towards my house. Shamefully, I continued to ignore people who were pleading for my help. I felt horrible for turning a blind eye on them but to me, my family was more important.

  When I got within a couple of houses away, I noticed that a couple of people were banging on my front glass screen door. They looked rough, as if they had just come out of a severe gang fight. From what I could see, their clothes looked torn and bloody. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like they were missing patches of hair.

  I slowly rolled past my driveway, making sure that I stayed out of their line of sight before I stopped. I sat still in my car, afraid to breathe for a few minutes. I wanted to make sure that the coast was truly clear before I got out.

  When I felt that it was safe enough I reached up to my visor to click the garage door opener and froze. I have a two-car garage with the double style garage doors. We always kept the door closest to the main door/ entrance locked and therefore we didn’t really use it. So here was my problem. What if the garage door we did use on the right side made a noticeable noise when it opened? All doors seem to make loud squeaking sounds when you’re trying to be quiet. What if the noise attracts those people at my front door? I guess, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t really matter because I couldn’t afford to spend any extra time worrying about the minor details.

  Even with the garage door opening, I sat in my car and looked around to make sure that I hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention. After a few long minutes, I slowly opened my door and eased myself out of the car. I tried as hard as I could to not make a sound. Once I was out of my car, I looked around to make sure that there was still no immediate danger before I jogged toward the open garage door.

  Once inside the garage, I slowly made my way toward the utility/kitchen door. Just as soon as I reached the door, I took the opportunity to look behind me out through the garage door opening to make sure that the coast was still clear. Once I was satisfied that there was no one there, I eased open the kitchen door and took a few steps inside the utility room. I quietly closed the door behind me while I noticed the frightening banging sounds echoing through the house. The noise seemed to be coming from the direction of my front door.

  I silently moved throughout my house looking for my wife and kids. When I didn’t hear anything except for the constant banging, I started to become frantic in my search. I quickly moved from room to room.

  To my relief, I found them all hiding in one of the hallway closets. I put my first finger to my mouth to mimic the ‘shh’ sound. I quietly motioned for them to follow me back towards the kitchen. Let me tell you that it wasn’t easy to keep that many kids quiet at one time, but we somehow managed. I was just glad that we had been practicing on forming a line, just like the big kids had practiced at school.

  When we got to the kitchen door, I positioned myself at the head of the line. I urged them to remain quiet until we were safely in the car and leaving. I had my wife take her position at the rear of the line.

  Once I was satisfied that we were ready to go, I slowly opened the door. That was my first mistake because I was immediately rushed by two sick looking guys. I’m not sure if it was my adrenaline pumping or something else, but I took in my surrounding in less than the blink of the eye.

  The first thing that I noticed was that they were the same two gang looking people from my front door. Now that I could see them from the front, they looked worst then I could have even imagined. They were covered in blood with pieces of flesh hanging from their faces and arms. They looked like the gruesome zombies from all of the movies I had ever seen. I’ve decided to just go ahead and refer to them as zombies.

  The zombies were faster and stronger then I figured they would have been. Thinking quickly, I managed to use the door as a weapon and pushed both backwards until they tripped over a couple of cases of bottled water we had stored close to the door.

  With the zombies on their backs, I yelled for my wife and kids to just run to her car. I led the way as we hurried past the flailing zombies and ran towards my wife’s tan colored Ford Expedition. To be honest, they looked like a couple of turtles as they fought to turn over onto their stomachs.

  Obviously, I was the first to arrive at my wife’s car and used the keyless remote to unlock the doors. Without thinking about it, I put the keys in my right front pocket as I reached out to open the rear passenger door with my left hand. I turned to usher the kids into the SUV whenever another male zombie with a face that looked like it was covered in open wounds came out of nowhere. He had managed to position himself between my daughter and the rest of us.

  Just like the others, he was faster then I imagined he would be. He reached out and grabbed my daughter’s hair as she tried to run around him. He had a solid grip on her hair and pulled her back towards him. I was in the middle of lifting my first twin into the back seat of the SUV when I heard her scream out for me.

  Fear crept over me as I quickly grabbed my other twin and sort of tossed him into the car. I turned to grab my oldest son, Jimmy. But he wasn’t there. I looked up and saw him running towards his sister.

  I watched with both fear and pride. It seemed that without thinking about his own safety, he had rushed forward to protect his younger sister.

  I turned back towards my wife, “Get the twins in their car seats!”

  Without waiting for her to reply, I turned and rushed to protect my oldest two children. I had managed to get within a few feet when my son screamed out in pain. I noticed that the zombie had pulled Jimmy up by his right arm and was biting down on his forearm. He had twisted his arm in such a way that it looked like he had almost pulled Jimmy right off the ground.

  I was so worried that if I attacked the zombie that I would end up hurting my son even more. I decided to use
a distraction method as I screamed and waved my arms around.

  The distraction worked, sort of. He had a Pitt Bull like locked jaw grip on my son’s arm. He lifted his head as he kept his mouth clinch down. He must have released his grip on my son’s arm because the rest of his body began to fall towards the ground. You could see the skin being pulled away from Jimmy’s arm.

  Jimmy’s scream intensified from a cry of pain to that of a death howl as blood began to spray from his open wound. The zombie looked up at me. Surprisingly, the zombie still had a hold of JoJo’s hair and Jimmy’s arm. I knew at that exact moment that I had been wrong because he hadn’t let go of my son. Instead, it was my son who was hopelessly trying to fight back. My heart sank as I noticed that a puddle of blood was starting to gather at Jimmy’s feet.

  I couldn’t tell where all the blood was coming from, but I guess it didn’t really matter because seeing my son in so much pain was more than I could bare. I took a step forward and swung my fist as hard as I could.

  My right fist connected solidly with the left side of the zombie’s face. I felt a brief surge of pain in that hand just as soon as my fist touched his face, but I ignored it. I stood there and watched the zombie stagger backwards a few steps until he tripped on something that I didn’t see behind him. Luckily, he released my children before he fell backwards onto his back. I was a little confused, but it looked like he was trying to use his hands and arms to catch himself.

  My mistake was that I stood there dumbfounded as I watched him. Without even realizing it, my rational mind was trying to make sense of what I was seeing. It looked like the thing had released my children, so he could try to catch himself as he fell. That must mean that he’s still thinking of his own survival. Right? That would mean that all the books and movies that contained zombies about not having any sense of ‘self-preservation’ must have been it wrong.

  Shamefully, I stood there shocked for a few long seconds. Even now I’m not sure why I wasn’t able to move, to react like I should have. It was like being trapped in a nightmarish haze that I couldn’t wake up from. It wasn’t until I heard my son scream “Daddy, help us!” that I came out of my daze and was able to move. It was my wake-up call.